Photograph by Dhritiman Mukherjee/Greenpeace.
Yet, in an unusual twist, the Ministry of Environment and Forests finds itself aligned with the green bodies that so often are a cause for grief, as Minister for Environment and Forests, Jayanthi Natarajan is as uncomfortable with the proposal for the establishment of a National Investment Board as do numerous local bodies and NGOs, like Greenpeace.
The National Investment Board is an institution that has been proposed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in order to speed up the process of attaining clearances for large scale development projects. Some have argued that this will work to the advantage of more rapid industrial growth, hence speeding up the economic development of the country and providing much-needed employment opportunities and infrastructure. This anthropogenic point of view completely undermines the biodiversity of the nation, seemingly suggesting that the process of environmental clearance should no longer be of serious importance.
The proposal is being seen as an infringement of the entire purpose and mandate of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and as a grievous threat to India's forests by local tribal bodies and NGOs. Natarajan has issued a letter to the Prime Minister of India stating her grievances, and although she is in agreement that there is a dire need to improve the clearances process, she is rightly worried about the means being undertaken to this end.
In her letter to the PM, Natarajan writes that the “urgency with which such sweeping changes in the Rules of Transaction of Business are sought to be made, that too not by DoPT [Department of Personnel and Training], which is under you, but by the Ministry of Finance, which is not the nodal Ministry in this case, is both surprising and disturbing." Her reservations are not entirely unfounded, as the Ministry of Finance is in no position to evaluate such projects objectively, i.e. placing India's sustained natural heritage on equal footing with short term monetary profit.
Serious reservations have been expressed against the blatant disregard for nature that is understated in this proposal, that suggests a two-tiered approach - a more detailed scrutiny for projects proposed in ecologically sensitive areas, and a fast-track approach to those not in such regions. This view in itself reeks of ignorance, since it is the burgeoning effects of industrialisation in non-green areas that is putting unwanted stress on the resources and regenerative capacity of the country's last natural havens and so the two cannot be evaluated independently of one another.
Greenpeace, which has been campaigning tirelessly against the desecration of Central India's forests by coal mining projects has thus far collected over 250,000 signatures in support of their petition to stop destroying India's forests, and has expressed dismay over this new threat.
Their online petition against the NIB categorically states, “The proposed National Investment Board (NIB), if formed, will be an undemocratic authority that can overrule the decisions of India's environment ministry - putting India's wildlife, our forests and the lives of people who depend on them in great danger."
Source: Sanctuary Asia
